We recently moved into a new house with two plum trees in the garden, so there has been a variety of plum cakes baked this summer. This particular recipe is delicious, even after a couple of days and found lots of admirers at the new year’s party I took it to.
Depending on the plums this cake can be a bit tart, which I think is a refreshing and interesting note. Taste the plums beforehand. They should be a bit firm and have good flavour. Don’t use overripe ones. If the plums are quite tart you might want to serve the cake with ice-cream instead of whipped cream, but both work well.
Ingredients
Batter:
100g flour
140g ground almonds (white or wholemeal)
120g walnuts, crushed with a few bits left
220 golden sugar
185g unsalted butter
4 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tsp vanilla, 1 pinch of salt
800g of firm plums
Icing
juice and zest of 1 lemon
appr. 200g icing sugar
Method
Preheat the oven to 190C / 170C Fan
Beat the butter, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a standup mixer or using and electric hand mixer until light and fluffy. Add the almonds and vanilla. Add one egg at a time, beating until it is fully incorporated. Mix the flour, baking powder and crushed walnuts and fold into the batter. Last add 1 teaspoon of lavender (optional).
Wash, dry and cut the plums in half. Remove the stone.
Pour the batter into a 24cm cake tin, or 20 x 15cm casserole dish (note the cake in the photo was a triple mix). Sit the plums on their sides into the batter.
Bake for 70 -80 min (depending on your oven) or until the sides start to brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Check at around 45min. If too much juice has run out of the plums tip it off and continue baking as instructed.
Mix the lemon juice, zest and icing sugar in a small bowl. It should be fairly runny, if it’s too thick add a few drops of water until you have the right consistency. The icing gets brushed onto the hot cake. Sprinkle over remaining lavender (optional).
Set the cake out to cool.
Best served with whipped cream or vanilla ice-cream.